Baptism week!

September 11, 2017

Hey y'all! This week was one for the books. :) 

Monday- on Monday (I bet you can guess) we had P Day! we washed our clothes and cleaned and emailed and shopped. Yay! after that we spent the evening visiting less actives but no one was really home. Bummer. 

Tuesday- On Tuesday we went and did service at the Newtonia Red Library! After that we went to see our nursing home friends, Mary and Donald. They were so fun to visit with and so are all of the other lonely people in the nursing home. after that we tried visit some less actives who are always an adventure to talk to but they weren't home... so sad. Tuesday night we had dinner with the Lemons :) I love the Lemons. They made fried chicken and it was oh so good. That night we went to visit Page Talbot and see how she was doing before her baptism and she was doing well! We came home at 8:30 and did some exercises! It was a good day.

Wednesday- On Wednesday we did weekly plannins (plot twist! it wasn't on Thursday) and it was good. That took the whole morning and then we got a text from our Mission President's assistants asking us all to clean our cars in anticipation of our meeting with him the next day. So we spent the afternoon making sure our car was in tip top shape. That night we had dinner and then visited a less active and then came home and exercised. 

Thursday- On Thursday we woke up bright and early and got ready and drove for an hour and a half to... SPRINGFIELD for our meeting. I love Springfield and it was so fun to drive through the town I spent the first 5 1/2 months of my mission in. We had zone conference at the stake center and I got to see so many people! My trainer, Sister Sanders and my good ole MTC friend Sister Naegle! It was so fun. Another cool thing was that a member of the seventy came, Elder Villareal. He instructed us and gave a lot of really cool thoughts  After the meeting they had some people come in and give us all flu shots if we wanted. I knew my mom would want me to get one so I braved the needles and got a flu shot. Sister Naegle held my hand. It was all good. After that we drove home and had dinner with some members who have celiacs disease so they are the masters of gluten free cooking and they made homemade biscuits. They were so dang good. That night we went and  met a less active who we didn't know and had a really good conversation with him and got to know him. It was awesome. 

Friday- Remember that time I got a flu shot so I wouldn't get the flu? Guess who woke up with the flu. Gosh dang it. So we had a sick day. Didn't get a whole lot done. The High Priests had a karaoke activity where they invited tons of less actives and some non members so I threw my hair up in a bun and we went to that. It was really fun! They bought me my own gluten free pizza (I'm so blessed) and had soda and karaoke. I sat down at a table and talked with some members and Sister Crandall sang karaoke and did a puzzle. All was good. 

Saturday- Saturday was a special day! Paige got baptized :) I was so happy I could have died right there. Paige has some health struggles so we spent the whole morning taking bleach wipes to the font to make sure it was clean and bacteria free. It was a great service opportunity. Then we had her baptism. She was so sweet and the spirit was so strong. We sang I'm trying to be like Jesus and I got all teary eyed because I thought of how Jesus Christ was baptized, how I was baptized and now how Paige who I love dearly was baptized. So much happiness comes from "trying to be like Jesus" and "Following in his ways". After the baptism we had dinner with Paige's family and then that night we went to see our investigator Shawn. He is doing really really well and we are excited he is making so much progress. Saturday night we came home and went over to the high school's track across the street and exercised. It was such a good day.

Sunday- On Sunday we went to church and then went home teaching with one of the men in our ward. It was pretty cool. After that we came home and did some studies and then went to see some potential investigators. They didn't let us in BUT they said that we could come back this coming Sunday so that's pretty great! After that we had dinner and then we took some copies of the Book of Mormon to a member who wants them so she can hand them out (it's great! you should all try handing out copies of the Book of Mormon! :) ) and then we came home and went to sleep. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about singing. I saw my mission president and his wife at zone conference and I got to talk to Sister Loveland for just a minute and she asked me how much I was singing. I said "not much" and asked what made her ask me that. She said the spirit told her and that I needed to sing. I thought that was kind of an odd thing but I started singing and holy cow does that make a difference for me. I found the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 136: 28 " if thou are merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving." I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to sing praises and to worship, If you are happy, take the time this week to sing a little bit. It made a difference for me. I love y'all! have a great week!

~Sister Madisen Lloyd

Pictures:

Picture 1 Sister Lloyd and Paige pre baptism :) 

Round 2 In Granby MO

September 4, 2017

Well I've said this before but I'll say it again. I never know what to tell everyone on these short weeks. I feel like I just gave my life update a couple days ago... because I did. But I'll see what I can come up with. Here goes it.

Thursday- On Thursday I took Sister Snyder to transfer point in Joplin and dropped her off, picked up my new companion Sister Crandall and drove the two of us back to Granby. We spent the afternoon weekly planning and I told her about the area. Updated her on everything she needed to know to be successful, okay maybe not. I don't even know everything I need to know to be successful but I sure try. That night we had dinner at the Moffit's house. They are awesome and they fed us Chinese food which is my favorite, but it is not Brother Moffit's favorite. After that we did online training and I worked on some family history! 

Friday- On Friday we started our morning by going through the ward list. I told her how everyone is related and anything else that she needed to know about the members. After that we went and started trying to visit people. and we got to see a lot of members that Sister Crandall needed to meet. We went to visit some of the less actives we work with. One of which was this really funny old man who loves the sister missionaries and he gives us all nicknames. My nickname is "Red horse" because I guess that is an orange fish and he thinks that I have orange hair which thus makes me look like a red horse. I looked up pictures of these fish and... they aren't very pretty so I'm a little offended. BUT that's okay because the nickname came from a loving place so I can't be mad. The rest of the night we drove around and met members and less actives and then we came home for the night. 

Saturday- On Saturday we started the day by helping with the highway clean up our ward was doing. We put on some ugly orange vests and each walked down a different side of the highway cleaning up garbage. You would be amazed what people throw out their car windows. *shudder* On a happier note, I was reading Elder Uchtdorf talk where he mentions forget me not flowers earlier this week and as I was walking down the highway I saw some growing in the ditch bank I was walking on and it was such a cute tender mercy that let me know God was thinking about me! (I'm not a flower expert, I don't know if they were actually forget me knots or not but I decided that they were. Don't bust my bubble.) The rest of the day was good. We went to the elderly home in Granby and visited a member who was in there and when we got there this elderly lady wheeled up to me and asked "Are you looking for me?" I thought maybe she was confused or maybe just really lonely and so I asked her where she was headed and wheeled her there and then went back to the guy we were visiting. We finished our visit and  went on our way. It was good! We finished the day with a lesson with our investigators, Jess, Steve and Chloe and it was awesome. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they were really open to it. It was cool!  

Sunday- On Sunday we went to church and we were talking to the relief society president and she mentioned she needed to go see a new name that just came onto our records. An older lady who lives at the elderly person home in Granby. Remember the confused lady who thought we were looking for her? Yeah, she's a member. *face palm* I'm the worst. So after church we went back to Granby House and met her and talked to her. She's super nice. That night we had a really good dinner with some members in the ward and then we went to scone night! We had invited some investigators to scone night but they didn't end up coming. I was super bummed but that's okay. There's always another scone night. :)  

This week my spiritual thought is not mine. My grandma Maughan sent it to me and it was such a tender mercy for me I thought it might be for someone else too. 

"Isaiah 41:13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee.

President Uchtdorf said Christ's perfect love allows us to walk with humility, dignity and a bold confidence as followers of our beloved Savior. Christ's perfect love gives us the confidence to press through our fears and place our complete trust in the power and goodness of our Heavenly Father and of His Son Jesus Christ."

I'm so grateful to know that the Lord is willing to hold my hand and help me through anything that I am asked to go through. Sometimes I forget that and I usually end up falling on my face as I let go and try to run ahead of Him. But when I do choose to hold His hand and let Him help me I am always more successful. I'm so grateful for the song I am a Child of God. "I am a Child of God and He has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me. Help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him some day." I'm so grateful to know that as I walk through this life, I never walk alone. God is so good.

I love you all! Have a great week! 

~Sister Madisen Lloyd

Pictures: 

Picture 1- We had a really bad rainstorm that flooded and we were trying to get to a members house. So I hopped out to make sure the water wasn't too deep for the truck. 

Picture 2- Sister Snyder's feet hurt on Sunday so we hitched a ride home in the back of a truck